BOND | Bucky Barnes

Date Night

Steve gently pushed Bucky in the chest as he stood there sulking in the kitchen of the house they shared. "What's wrong with you? Are you out of your mind?!"

"Calm down, Stevie. Frank and Fury were there. I think they're sick of Elena's stupidity too. Neither of them tried to stop me."

"You've practically made a necklace around her neck!"

Bucky shrugged as he pulled a milk carton out of the fridge and stood it up. After drinking the milk, he said, "I was teaching her my name," while laughing at his own disgusting joke.

He turned around as the strong hand on his shoulder guided him, and the milk carton he had stopped standing up spilled onto his face.

"Bucky, please," Steve said, ignoring the sight that would have made him laugh at any other time. Milk dripped from Bucky's head onto the floor. "Elena is important to me."

He took the towel that Steve had meticulously washed and ironed last week and hung up, from the hanger under the counter. And while he was drying his face without mercy to ironed fabric, he asked the man with his cold voice "I thought you weren't interested in her?"

Steve snatched the towel from the man's hand "I am now. Or rather, I decided to be honest with myself. When I thought I was going to lose her last night..."

Bucky raised his eyebrows "Do you know why these things happen? All these feelings?" He grinned at the man who looked at his face expecting an answer "Because you didn't have sex. You were so rational when Sharon was in our lives!"

"Well, I can be rational again when Elena comes into my life then," Steve said, responding to the man's insinuation with the same insinuation.

Bucky was surprised as his stomach twisted "Do you want to have sex with that bug?" His body temperature was rising. His ears were buzzing. Was this anger? But why? Why did he care what Steve would do with that bug?

Steve grumbled, "Don't embarrass me. What I mean is, I really like Elena and..."

"And?" Bucky repeated in horror.

"I think I'm going to ask her out, Bucky. You're my brother. You two are going to have to learn to handle each other for me. I know you don't get along very well, but you're always throwing tantrums. I mean, you practically strangled her! I want to make sure that doesn't happen again." Bucky tried to hold back the electricity that was crawling up his spine, but it didn't work. Steve shouted his name as his robotic arm angrily slammed into the refrigerator, but it was too late. The refrigerator shut itself down, a shower of sparks. The door was split in two.

"You know what I want to make sure of, Steve?" he shouted at the man. "That your fucking love life somehow ends up touching me! Enough! You bring home all the worthless crap on the market and take it with you! And when they break up with you, I have to take care of you!"

Steve looked at Bucky in disbelief. "Wow! I didn't know I was this much trouble for you."

The truth was, neither did Bucky. The words practically flew out of his mouth. He hated himself when he saw how hurt the man in front of him was. "Steve..."

"No, don't bother. You've spilled your guts. I understood what I needed to understand, but you don't need to worry because I won't bother you like this anymore..."

"You're talking nonsense..."

"Because I'm in love with Elena, and I think she's the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. So you won't have to deal with a breakup."

Bucky shouted with a force that surprised himself. "NONSENSE!"

Panic, terror, disappointment... all of it.